Gus Triandos

Infobox MLB retired
name=Gus Triandos


width=185
position=Catcher, First Baseman
bats=Right
throws=Right
birthdate=birth date and age|1930|7|30
deathdate=
debutdate=August 3
debutyear=by|1953
debutteam=New York Yankees
finaldate=August 15
finalyear=1965
finalteam=Houston Astros
stat1label=AVG
stat1value=.244
stat2label=HR
stat2value=167
stat3label=RBIs
stat3value=608
teams=
*New York Yankees (by|1953-by|1954)
*Baltimore Orioles (by|1955-by|1962)
*Detroit Tigers (by|1963)
*Philadelphia Phillies (by|1964-by|1965)
*Houston Astros (by|1965)
highlights=
*All-Star (AL): 1957-59

Gus Triandos (born July 30, 1930, in San Francisco, California) is a former Major League Baseball player who played 13 years from 1953 to 1965. He played for the New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles and the Detroit Tigers of the American League and the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros of the National League. He primarily played catcher, and logged many hours at first base as well. Triandos batted and threw right-handed.

As an Oriole, Triandos held the then-record for home runs by an American League catcher, at 30. He also was user of an outsized catcher's mitt designed by manager Paul Richards to handle the dancing knuckleball of Hoyt Wilhelm.

Although perhaps the slowest runner in the league, Triandos once hit an inside-the-park home run. Along those same lines, as of 2007, he also holds the record for the most consecutive games without being caught stealing, 1,206. That accounts for his entire career, in which he had exactly 1 stolen base. ("Sporting News" Baseball Record Book, 2007, p.52) His lone stolen base came on September 28, 1958, the last game of the season, at Yankee Stadium, off rookie pitcher Zach Monroe and third-string catcher Darrell Johnson, with the Yankees saving their regular batteries for the upcoming 1958 World Series. [http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=195809282NYA]

A popular player in Baltimore, a street remains named "Triandos Drive" in suburban Timonium, Maryland.

As a Phillie, Triandos caught Jim Bunning's perfect game against the New York Mets on June 21, 1964.

He was elected to the All-Star team 3 times (1957, 1958, 1959). Triandos' family origins are from Koronos, Messenia, Greece. [http://www.baseballacropolis.org/didyouknow.htm]

Triandos was mentioned in the second episode of the third season of the HBO drama "The Wire", where a character [Sgt. "Herc" Hauk] mentions having felt sorry for him as a kid because he had to catch Hoyt Wilhelm's knuckleball. For this reason, he's the one male that the character would have sex with.

ee also

* Top 500 home run hitters of all time

External links

* [http://www.baseball-reference.com/t/triangu01.shtml Baseball Reference]